Tales Post 15
Tales Post 15 marks the final post for The Story of Ameryl. The Great Eiyill is a spacestation that orbits around the planet Tress and though it was built as a military installation, its weapons have been turned away from the planet, and the original target, as a show of faith. The planet is divided between The Imperium and the Jovian Republic on either side of the River Split. The section of the station that looks down at the planet is called The Gazer and is where Ameryl Hypericum is discussing her future with Gadreel. When she asks about his pendant he reveals it contains a picture of a relative of his. In time she joins the political arm of The Imperium, as does her protégé, Marianne de Myste, while Suzanna de Myste returns to Ampersand and inherits the Cloud Break Reserve wine business and Ameryl's Manor. Highemperor's Wives, Fantina Clémence Dujardin and Aurorielle, both return to Urbis Major with good news for Highemperor about Ameryl. Ameryl would climb the ranks of The Imperium until she becomes an Arm of Skrai and builds the God-Killer machine with the anti-power of Mors Dei. Finally she captures the god known as Kavilli and travels to the planet Indra. Post The Story of Ameryl Tress The space fortress named the Great Eiyill is orbiting the planet Tress. Its cannons once faced the planet's surface but ten (Earth years) ago the cannons were inverted to aim out into space as a gesture of faith towards the Jupiterians. The western hemisphere, now under the thumb of the new Jovian Republic, is separated by the incredibly long, and wide, River Split. The aptly named river runs straight through the centre of the planet, north to south, where it only ends when it meets the two frozen poles. The planet Tress itself is double the size of Jupiter, but it is a rocky terran planet with a thick atmosphere, rich with the necessary components to support most sentient life. The eastern half of the planet is controlled by The Imperium, who arrived on the world before the Jupiterians ever did. The planet was used mostly as a research station and expanded very slowly until the Jupiterians also arrived. These two empires, unlike most empires of the Multiverse, don't expand outwards from their original homeworld but, instead, appear as tiny dots across a map of any galaxy. Their portal technology means that they expand to anywhere in a galaxy so long as it is capable of life. Other empires, such as the human empires or the High Empire, expand in order to maintain a zone of control and create borders that can be patrolled and guarded. With the arrival of the Jupiterians, who set up a settlement before they even knew the world was occupied, The Imperium interest in the world increased dramatically. Soon the two were vying for control. Despite that, neither ever entered into open conflict. Skirmishes between civilians occurred frequently but never between militaries, even though that threat always loomed. The river was used as a border to separate them and forts, castles, gates, walls were all built along that river. When both sides realised that they were never going to actually try to kill each other, and the trade between them was far more lucrative than owning the other's share, both bodies turned their weapons of war away from each other. The room colloquially called 'The Gazer' is a dome that constantly faces the planet. Once it would have been used by military personnel to watch the world but now it's mostly used by tourists. Tourists from all factions, including the Jovian Republic. Ameryl stands there, looking down. Even at this distance, the light patterns of mega-cities can be seen glowing in the darkness of night. The sun of the system is joined by a second glowing stellar body - the burning planet Trogdor. Trogdor was once a gas giant but a massive surge of aether, that had emanated from the Myst Sector, swept through the system and fused with the world's gaseous atmosphere. It then dissipated into the void of space and left behind the inferno core of the planet that still burns today. Ameryl sees it rise up above the horizon of Tress, glowing hot red. Tress also has twenty moons. To Ameryl that's far, far too many and at least nineteen of them ought to be blown up. No planet needs more than one moon. More than one is just showing off. Twenty of them is just gaudy. One of the moons slowly sails by the Gazer. It's nothing more than a very large asteroid captured by the planet's gravity and its gnarled appearance seems to have taken on the visage of Donald TrumpDonald Trump article, Wikipedia., complete with the presence of amber sand coating one half of the moon to give it a golden head. Gadreel: "Enjoying the view?" Ameryl: "I am." Gadreel: "If you spend much more time watching, you'll steal my job." He descends the steps towards her. The Gazer is currently closed to the public since it's in use for a very important meeting. In actuality, Gadreel had it closed so he could show it off to his guests. The others are all seated on the upper platform where they're being served expensive alcohols brewed on Tress. The space fortress itself is one of the largest and most monstrous constructs of the Milky Way Galaxy, far exceeding the requirements of war for most of the natives of this area of the Multiverse, and yet its has now been reduced to a motel. Ameryl: "I'm just interested in what I see. They could have gone to war but they didn't. When I was with Highemperor it seemed that conquest and victory was the route to victory for empires like this. Sure they have plenty of peace within the High Empire but when it comes to foreign lands they'd rather own it than work with it." Gadreel shrugs. Gadreel: "Whatever works I suppose. If that's how they deal with the Multiverse then who's to say it's wrong?" Ameryl: "Me." Gadreel smirks. Gadreel: "Your authority exceeds the Highemperor's does it?" Ameryl: "Why shouldn't it?" Gadreel: "Why should it?" Ameryl: "Well, he thinks his exceeds everyone else's so just annoying him makes me happy." She now smirks, mischievously, over her wine glass. Apparently this wine is a merlot, grown very close to the River Split giving it the name Red Split. Ameryl thinks the name sounds more like a woman's period than a pleasant merlot. Gadreel: "Is annoying Highemperor a good motivation in life?" Ameryl: "Not really. In all honesty I'd managed to forget him for years now. That part of my life was well behind me. Until now. This... Imperium. It reminds me of the High Empire but... different. So naturally he's come back into my mind again." Gadreel: "You must have loved him very much." Ameryl: "I still do." There's a long silence between them as she sips from her drink. She hadn't said those words in a long time either and saying them now actually feels like a relief. She has come to terms with her feelings and accepts them as they are. She will never stop loving him. But that doesn't stop her loving again nor does it make her obsessive. She imagines this is how a wife might feel after her husband dies. She will never forget that love and will never relinquish it. But she must move on. Ameryl: "How fares your research division?" Gadreel: "Your nunchakus contain anti-power. I have never heard of it before, but they tell me it is negative power. It's so... unpowerful that it negates power. The more powerful something is, the more effective it would actually be. It drains, absorbed, negates power. The only thing that it wouldn't negate is... well... something normal. Like when you hold it. Or if you flushed it down a toilet or something. Just... non-powerful things. Weird, weird stuff." Ameryl: "And it could be put into something else?" Gadreel: "Sure. It'll take a lot of research. A lot of trial and error, but the report said they could even amplify its effects." Ameryl: "That would be interesting." She thinks of her old friend Reimi Soulstar. He'd be chomping at the bit to come here and work on this thing. She makes a mental note to invite him. Gadreel: "Does that mean you've chosen to stay here?" Ameryl: "Maybe..." Gadreel: "Your intelligence on Highemperor would be very... welcome in the intelligence division." Ameryl: "I don't think I'd make a very good spy." Gadreel: "You underestimate yourself. I think you'd be very good. At least in the more... open assignments. Like my last one. You wouldn't really have to hide. The High Empire and others like it are very good at sniffing out spies so usually there's no point in hiding and they'd see no point in stopping you either. They just have to control the information you get and you have to get to the information they don't actually want you to get. It's quite an elaborate game we play. My High Imperial counterpart is actually down there on Tress right now..." He checks a datapad. Gadreel: "Apparently he's playing poker at a casino. I swear these High Imperials love their damned poker." Ameryl: "Why would he be playing poker? Shouldn't he be, you know, spying?" Gadreel: "He is! He could be playing poker with a military officer, gleaning information. He could be watching for cultural tensions, hot spots to exploit. He could be gathering information on the economy even. Who knows." Ameryl: "Or he could just be playing poker." Gadreel: "Well." Ameryl: "What's so special about your pendant, by the way? You had to blow your cover for it." Gadreel: "I know. I got careless. That's what happens when you get too comfortable in the role you're playing, you almost forget who your really are. I enjoyed playing the mysterious, aloof cad. I should never have put that pendant on. It's just a photograph of a family member inside. That's all." Ameryl: "Oh. I never thought of you as a family man." Gadreel: "I'm not. Not really." He seems sad all of a sudden and she decides to change the subject. Ameryl: "I think I would be better suited to politics. It's rather my forte." Ameryl joined The Imperium as a local minister on Tress before she was quickly promoted to ambassador and was sent from eastern Tress to western Tress to take over from the former ambassador. With her went Marianne de Myste, who likewise joined the political division of the Imperium planet. Unlike her sister, Suzanna de Myste missed her home and travelled back to Ampersand. Ameryl granted her the deeds to her old manor, as well as the wine brand, and Suzanna became incredibly rich and influential on Ampersand in no time. The two wives of Highemperor, Fantina Clémence Dujardin and Aurorielle returned to Urbis Imperia after their holiday on Tress. They were able to relate to Highemperor that Ameryl was alive and well, which was glad tidings to the former lover. However, before long, Marianne had shown a thirst for power and attention within the political sphere and she came into rivalry with Ameryl. Ameryl, however, had no intention of competing with Marianne. The younger human woman began a music career alongside her political career, aiming to gain her a public image and generate popularity. This popularity rocketed her into the planetary council after a landslide vote while Ameryl remained ambassador. Ameryl, however, was gaining traction in a different way. Her influence over the intelligence division and the research division was starting to strain the local system and her usefulness was becoming to great to be stuck as a lowly planetary ambassador. She then bypassed the planet Tress, much to the envy of Marianne, and became the governor for the local galaxy. The Milky Way. Having a non-official role within the research division eventually yielded results for her anti-power nunchakus. The weapons themselves had been dismantled and the anti-power placed within a whole new machine. She, and the scientists, devised a new system and started to construct the massive God-Killer; a machine as large as a small sun and capable of extinguishing a planet of gods. They just needed a source of power through which to channel the anti-power itself. A conduit. In order to accomplish this goal, Ameryl was promoted further still. She replaced the former Arm of Skrai and had a new vessel, The Lamb, commissioned. She went on the hunt. Using the anti-power itself, she was able to capture Kavilli. And thus went to test their new machine on the grand scale of Kavilli's homeworld. Continues in CatH Post 68 and Pan Post 53. 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